US graft probe into unrelated third party, says Adani Green Energy

Company added it has no relationship with the third-party and has not received any notice itself

Adani Group’s renewable energy arm, Adani Green Energy, on Tuesday said it was aware of a probe into alleged violations of US anti-corruption laws by a third party, but asserted that it had no relationship with the entity under scanner. The clarification came after a query raised from the exchanges.

Adani Green, in a response to BSE, said, “The company states that it has not received any notice from the Department of Justice of the US in respect of the allegation referred to in the said article.”

The company was referring to a news article published by Bloomberg recently, where it reported that US investigators were probing if an Adani Group entity was involved in “paying officials in India for favourable treatment on an energy project”

On Tuesday, Adani Green said, “The company is aware of an investigation by the United States Department of Justice into potential violations of United States anti-corruption laws by a third party.”

But, Adani Green added that it had no relationship with the said third-party and hence, “It is unable to comment on the scope of the present United States investigation that the company (Adani Green) or any of its personnel are subject to or exposed to in connection with the company’s alleged dealings with the third party.”

Since the report, a host of Adani Group companies, including Adani Enterprises, Adani Power, Adani Total Gas, have clarified that they have not received any notice from the Department of Justice of the US in respect of the allegation. Adani Green is the only company to mention a third-party in its clarification.

Meanwhile, global brokerage firm JP Morgan has said that the scope for corruption in the group’s renewable energy project was “highly unlikely”.

“We do not make changes to our recommendations at this stage for the Adani Group,” it said.

JP Morgan, in a note dated March 18, said notably, there is one 12 gigawatt (GW) manufacturing-linked solar energy project that was signed by Adani Green and Azure Power with Solar Energy Corporation of India in January 2020.

“This project remains under construction and does not form part of any of the Restricted Group bonds from these two entities,” the brokerage added.

 The Bloomberg report noted the probe is also looking at Indian renewable energy company Azure Power Global Ltd. The brokerage also said as details are very scant and the investigation itself might not lead to any successful prosecution, with likely limited potential financial/fundamental impact.